Conventional key fobs often include a two-piece housing, molded silicone rubber buttons, a printed circuit board (“PCB”), an antenna, and a battery clip coupled to one of the two pieces of the housing. To reduce costs, the pieces of the housing are typically made from black plastic. At least one piece of the housing usually includes one or more apertures for receiving a button. The buttons are usually defined by a single piece of molded silicone rubber that is substantially the same size as the housing. In many cases, the molded rubber piece is positioned inside the two pieces of the housing with the buttons aligned with the apertures in the housing. The molded rubber piece also usually includes a lip around its perimeter that provides a seal between the two pieces of the housing. Carbon pieces can be attached to the undersides of the buttons. Normally, the PCB is positioned beneath the silicon rubber buttons and includes electrical traces. When a button is depressed, the carbon piece on the underside of the button closes the traces on the PCB and activates a desired feature on a vehicle.
For a family of conventional key fobs (having different functionalities), an entire family of tooling is typically required to accommodate varying numbers of buttons, patterns, textures, and other styling. Due to the costs of the additional tooling, molding a family of key fobs with different features and styling is usually difficult and expensive. Similar problems arise in other applications, such as for other portable and non-portable electronic communication devices (e.g., mobile phones, GPS devices, audio equipment, and the like).